Full of Surprises
by SparkbyIrreplaceableSpark
Summary: A cute family one-shot. Claudia is forced into going to a ball but, being her awkward techy self, has no idea what to do. She asks for help from Myka, HG, and other members of the group. Some Clinks as well.


**Hi guys,**

**I don't own anything. Please review! I love feedback!**

Sometimes Myka looks at Claudia and sees a punk tech genius bound to take over the world. And sometimes she sees a girl-woman just barely coming into the world. More often though, Myka looks at Claudia and sees a younger version of herself.

After a surprisingly short case in Nebraska, Pete and Myka return to the B&B mid-afternoon. Myka is just looking forward to a nap, a shower and some of Leena's famous pie (_she is so turning into Pete_) and maybe a good book before the next big case.

What she is _not _expecting is the sound of voices emanating from her room.

Leaning around the door frame, she sees Claudia talking to herself in front of her closet, HG propped up on Myka's bed.

"Okay. " says Claudia to herself, walking in circles. "I'm Myka. I'm badass, but I'm also beautiful. What would I wear to something like this?" The metal bracelets around her wrist clink against her jacket as she twists and untwists her hands, turning to look at HG pleadingly.

"I'm afraid I have no idea, darling." HG cuts in, looking bored but also amused, toying with her grappler. "I can teach you magnificent ways to do your hair and the proper way to dance, but the last ball I went to was in 1894 and I'm quite sure fashion has changed since then."

Claudia returns to Myka's closet and lays out three dresses on her bed, rubbing the back of her head with one hand.

"Okay." Claudia says turning to HG. "Hair first, then."

HG comes over behind Claudia and has her sit very still, bringing her hands up and drawing Claudia's hair into a complicated but beautiful twisted knot at the back of her head.

"You know," HG begins with just a twinkle of sadness in her eyes, "I can imagine doing this for Christina. Sometimes you remind me of her, or what I imagine she would be like." Claudia begins to turn her head and HG gently hits her back to get her to sit up straight.

"In my day, you were presented to society at about your age, the "coming out" ceremony." HG laughs. "Of course," she smirked, "I happened to seduce every man by the end of mine, but it is a special ball nonetheless. I remember Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ended up punching a friend of mine." HG laughs genuinely now. "I was the talk of the town for weeks. The whole of London was completely scandalized. There. How is that, then?"

Claudia stands up and looks in Myka's mirror at the elegant knot at the back of her head.

"It's beautiful." Claudia says, gasping. "Thank you."

HG surrenders a motherly smile and gestures towards the dresses on Myka's bed, winking at Myka watching them in the door frame.

_Caught. _

"Hey guys," she says casually walking in "whats going on here?" She shoots an amused glance at the two women.

Claudia's eyes open wide and she starts stuttering.

"Myka! I…was just… you know…it's a funny story… 'cause Josh invited me- well more demanded really- I come with him to this thing and … you know… I'm me!..I don't have any dresses, but it's a ball! And Joshua…you know he's always been there for me and I figure well hey, if I can help him out by being his date to this thing then I'd better…but he said it was important I looked nice and I couldn't dress like myself and I thought well-hey! Who's beautiful and probably has dresses, Myka! So I took a gander in here, and you know I'll just go…"

"Claudia!" Myka cuts the rambling girl off. "Of course we'll help you! It's perfectly fine."

Claudia was blushing up a storm and shifting back and forth between her feet. Myka gave her an assuring smile and went and looked at the three dresses.

One was a powder blue color taffeta ballgown adored with darker imprints of flowers on top. _Absolutely not._ _Ugh, Tracy's wedding was bad enough as is and Claudia wouldn't be caught dead in this gown. _The other two were more Claudia's style, but classy. One was a bright red gown that cinched at the waist with a slit up to there and cut-outs. It was…well, hot. _Joshua would probably throw a fit if he caught her even looking at this dress. Not that it would stop her, but still. _

The last gown was a deep green with a double v-neck. Small studs adorned the strap that hooked around her neck, and the other sleeves puffed loosely around her shoulders. The gown fell to the floor from there.

"The green." Myka said immediately.

Claudia stopped rambling and looked at her with eyebrows raised.

"Yeah?" She looked unassumingly at the dress.

"Absolutely." Myka replied, handing it to her. "Get into the dress. I will go get your heels with the studs on them and that leather belt of yours."

HG perfected her makeup and picked out a pair of long chandelier earrings Myka hadn't worn in ages.

Meanwhile Claudia stood torn between looking awkward and enjoying the attention.

"I've never done anything… so girly..." She laughed awkwardly, as Myka helped her into her pair of heels.

Myka looked at the teen and smilied. Even though she looked about ready to jump out of the dress and run for the hills, she saw the awkward girl was desperate to be beautiful for once in her life.

"Claudia. Look at you." Smiling, she helped Claudia walk over to the floor length mirror and Claudia gasped, touching the image.

Her voice jumped three octaves. "Is that, really me?"

She stumbled towards the mirror.

HG laughed and shook her head, clapping her hands and putting down her grappler. "I'm sorry but you can't go to a ball or whatever this is wobbling and nearly ripping your dress. Downstairs now. You obviously need dance lessons. Go."

Myka and HG walked out of the room and downstairs. After a moment of staring at the image, wiping away a tear, Claudia snuck downstairs as quietly as possible and into the living room, hoping not to be seen.

Instead, she ran into Pete and Steve. Literally.

Pete caught her as she toppled towards the floor.

"Cl-Claudia? Is that you?" Pete held her at arms length with a confused expression.

"What artifact whammied you?" Pete looked her over and raised an eyebrow, inspecting her for weird behavior.

Claudia eyes widened as she stumbled away. That's when Myka and HG walked in.

"Claudia's brother is making her accompany him to the annual physics convention ball." HG explained, "And she desperately needs to be able to function in a gown. Luckily I see two gentlemen who will make excellent practice partners."

"Okay," Claudia said closing her eyes against the embarrassment, wanting nothing more to run upstairs and hack something, "Okay you've had your laugh. Can we get back to this whole 'dancing thing' because I can't dance and without a motherly figure in my life, I never really learned the whole "girly thing."

Pete stood up and wrapped his arms around Claudia, giving her a big goofy smile.

"Never fear, Pete is here!"

Claudia turned her head and caught Steve staring at her.

He smiled. "You look stunning Claude."

Myka raised her eyebrows in amusement and giggled at Pete's suddenly murderous expression.

Ignoring this, HG took Steve's hand and begun to instruct the young teen how to dance. That, and proper etiquette to behaving in ball gowns.

Just then Artie banged through the doorway, holding a case folder in one hand, and a croissant in the other. He stopped mouth open wide when he saw the young girl in green.

"What?!"

Claudia really did blush down to her roots then.

Pete explained and Artie set his stuff down on a chair. He took one look at the girl in the dress and snorted at her deer-in-headlights expression.

Giving Claudia a rare smile he grabbed a paper and pen off the nearby table and quickly wrote something down, handing it to Claudia when he was done.

Claudia looked at the paper he presented her. It was a complicated differential equation.

She had never been more grateful in her entire life.

"Oh thank god." She collapsed -delicately after HG sniffed at her- into a chair and immediately started solving it.

Artie gave the case folder he was holding to Myka and Pete and they immediately dispersed.

Steve sat down next to Claudia, careful not to muss her hair or dress, and peeked at her scribblings. He made a face.

Sure, he had taken math in college, but never past calculus. He stared at the young woman for a minute, before something occurred to him.

He got up, went to his room and came back down. She hadn't even noticed he was gone, stuck over -he glanced at her paper- a new equation. He shook his head with a small smile and slightly prodded her.

"Claude." he said softly. She help up a finger in response, wrote furiously for a few seconds, put the pen down with a self-satisfied "ah-hah!," before handing the paper to Artie who got up to get more paper.

"Yeah, Jinksy?" she turned her eyes on him.

Suddenly the impact of her beauty hit him. He doesn't if he's ever seen anything more beautiful in his entire life. He's staring unashamedly at her, wondering how and when he came to love this woman that is and always would be his partner.

"Jinksy?" she asks, concerned now, "what's up?"

He clears his throat and shakes himself of out his reverie.

"I have something for you."

He opened his palm to reveal a silver necklace with a milky jade heart in the center. A tree grew on top of the heart, silvery and shiny.

He holds it up so she can see it, before fixing it around her neck.

"It was Olivia's." he murmurs into her ear, "her favorite necklace. I want you to have it."

Claudia turns around in his arms and touches the necklace gently.

"Steve," she begins, looking extremely touched "I can't…"

Just then a commotion is heard at the door as Joshua comes in and greets Leena, who directs him to the family room.

"Keep it. No arguments." Steve detaches himself from her and backs away, the gleam of emotion dying in his eyes as Artie and Joshua walk in.

Claudia squeals and embraces her brother as he eyes her admiringly and begins to tease her.

They walk towards the door and Myka and Pete are stopped on the steps to see them off. Pete begins lecturing Joshua on bringing her home at an appropriate time, (who looks stunned and asks: "Isn't this kinda MY job?") as Artie pulls her into a rare fatherly hug.

Her family surrounding her, a small tear slips out of her eye and she quickly wipes it away. This was her home. Her family. This is where she finally –finally belongs.

**What did you think? Please review!**


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